Marketing Plan

Things to do before you make & execute a Marketing Plan 

1. Market Study – Who, Where and Why is the questions which you need to answer here -
   • Who – Who will Buy it? Who Requires it?
   • Where are these people located?
   • Why do they need this?
2. Talk to your Customers & Prospects - This should be right on the top of your To-Do List. Understand your customer’s needs by communicating through any channel. Capture Customer feedback in any form….formal way or in formal way. Know what, why, how, where & when your customer think.  You can do this through -
   • Secondary Research
   • Survey – Telephonic or Face to Face or On-line
   • Focus Group discussion
3. Speak to your product / Service team – Discuss internal on the strengths of your product / service, discuss short falls etc. This will help you communicate the right attributes to the target and will avoid over commitment. 
4. Measurement & Feedback Capture System – Before you do your marketing plan think on how you will measure the impact / ROI / feedback. This has to be done in advance. Plan the measurement & feedback capturing system in advance, since no plans are perfect and need to be revised, the information captured through this always comes handy.

Your Marketing Plan should include the following -

1. An Introduction.
2. Background.
3. Market Review.
4. Consumer Insight – Expectation, Desire, Habits.
5. Plan / Strategy – Which should include certain objective which you want to accomplish and your execution plan.  
6. Other Elements which you should cover in your plan
   • Brand Name
   • Packaging
   • Pricing
   • Promotional Strategy
   • Distribution Strategy
7. Financial Projections
   • Capital Cost
   • Variable Expenditure
   • ROI
   • Break-even Analysis

Your plan does not end on the above points. Each step is a plan itself which has to be carefully crafted and executed. I will elobarte each and every step in coming blogs.